wfn.org | National agency celebrates 20 years of feeding country's hungry

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 8, 1999    Contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{368}

NOTE: A photograph will be available with this story.

By United Methodist News Service*

The national hunger relief agency affiliated with the United Methodist
Church has provided 765 million servings of food to needy people during the
past 20 years.

The work of the Big Island, Va.,-based Society of St. Andrew was celebrated
during the 1999 Virginia Annual Conference in June. Conference delegates
were shown videos and pictures of the society's early days in a converted
sheep shed, and they shared the home life of the organization's cofounders,
the Revs. Ken Horne and Ray Buchanan.

"The Society of St. Andrew's beginning was scarcely noticed in 1979," said
retired Bishop H. Hasbrouck Hughes Jr. When Buchanan and Horne created the
society, they did not guess its impact, he said. "But God began unfolding
his plan, and through his blessings, the Society of St. Andrew grew." 

Ministries of the society include the Potato Project, Harvest of Hope, the
Gleaning Network, St. Andrew Press, St. Andrew's Retreat and an
international hunger-relief program. The organization also has established
three programs focusing on different areas of hunger: The Washington (D.C)
Area Gleaning Network, Hunters for the Hungry and Stop Hunger Now.

Hughes recalled the time that Horne and Buchanan first approached the
Virginia Annual Conference for seed money to begin the hunger-relief agency.
"This body sensed that here was a ministry to which God was calling us on
behalf of the hungry," the retired bishop said. 

^From an initial $30,000 grant given in 1983 to distribute a million pounds
of potatoes, the Society of St. Andrew grew to a nationwide ministry
salvaging more than 20 million pounds of produce annually, Hughes said. In
addition to its headquarters, the society has regional offices in North
Carolina, Texas and Florida, and 14 satellite offices in five states. It was
recognized in 1984 as a United Methodist Advance Special to raise funds for
hunger relief. 

"These things have happened largely because of the good leadership of the
founders of the Society of St. Andrew ... but the success may also be traced
to Bishop (W. Kenneth) Goodson, along with other leaders, who had faith
early on that God just might be trying to use these inauspicious beginnings
for a greater mission," Hughes said.

The Potato Project receives donations of tractor-trailer loads of
commercially unmarketable potatoes and other produce from members of the
agricultural community. Since the project's inception in 1983, more than 240
million pounds of fresh produce, at an average cost of 3.5 cents per pound,
have been shipped to more than 200 agencies in 48 states.

The society's idea of celebrating accomplishments is to feed more people, so
47,400 pounds of sweet potatoes were dumped at Ghent United Methodist Church
in Norfolk during the Virginia Annual Conference session. More than 300
conference delegates and local volunteers swarmed over the huge potato pile
and bagged the spuds for distribution through two hunger relief agencies.
The volunteers, representing 29 churches and youth groups throughout
Virginia, helped provide 142,200 servings of food for the region's hungry.
The volunteers included 3- and 4-year-olds from Ghent's preschool. 

Potato drops also were held at the annual conference sessions for
Alabama-West Florida, North Alabama and North Texas to help commemorate the
20th anniversary celebration. Delegates and volunteers handled more than
135,000 pounds of potatoes, yielding 405,000 servings of food.

Another society endeavor, the Gleaning Network, began in Virginia, and is
responsible for more than 23 million pounds of produce hand-gleaned by more
than 62,000 volunteers. The society's goal is to double the amount of
produce salvaged annually and provide 1.2 billion servings of food for the
nation's hungry.

The society also has developed new programs to increase funding and promote
food salvage and distribution to those in need.

Through Your Change Can Change the World, worshipers contribute their loose
change to the society each time they leave a Sunday service. The money helps
the organization salvage and distribute more food in contributing United
Methodist districts. 

The Hunger Relief Advocate Program has been launched with the help of the
churchwide Commission on United Methodist Men and the United Methodist
Committee on Relief. The program aims to establish hunger relief advocates
in the denomination's 66 U.S. annual conferences. The advocates will be
responsible for activities focusing on the needs of the poor and children,
while engaging the church in combating hunger and poverty.

In another hunger area, the society is working with a consortium with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture, Foodchain, Second Harvest, Gifts in Kinds
and the U.S. Department of Transportation to design a system whereby
transportation of donated produce might be easily provided for charities
that ship large quantities of food across the nation. The society also is
creating an October summit that will draw leaders in hunger work from
government, charity, business, church, to explore ways of more effectively
working together on behalf of the poor.

Despite the celebration, the society still faces challenges. For example, it
recently was offered 13 million pounds of potatoes that had been declared as
excess in Michigan, but it only had enough money to ship 150,000 pounds,
leaving millions more unused.

"We will redouble our efforts to add to the ranks of our supporters so this
kind of waste can be shortstopped in the future," Horne said. Discussions
between Second Harvest and USDA will be held to develop contingency plans
"that will allow us to deal with such vast amounts of wastage the next time
a food emergency occurs," he said.

Describing the month of June as a combination of the bitter and the sweet
for the society, Horne called for the abolition of hunger. 

"It is, indeed, sweet to be celebrating 20 years of doing God's work of
feeding the hungry," he said, "but it's a bitter pill we must swallow each
time huge quantities of produce go to waste simply because there is no money
to ship it to those in need. By God's grace, we will find a way to correct
these inequities so that hunger will no longer be an issue in this country."

# # #

*This story was adapted from a report by Carol A. Breitinger, public service
director for the Society of St. Andrew.

______________
United Methodist News Service
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(615)742-5472